A new, integrative account of the life and work of Mary Magdalene • Examines the lives of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, using biblical, historical, apocryphal, and recent channeled sources as well as regression reports • Explains the concept of ascension through a quantum-physics framework, detailing Mary Magdalene’s ascension along the Tree of Life • Explores Mary’s family background, her education in Egypt, her mission in Western Europe, and her life and work alongside Jesus, including her role as his wife and his appointed successor Expanding the scholarship and understanding of the early Christian period and the world of the Essenes from a feminine perspective, religious historian Annine van der Meer offers a detailed new account of the life of Mary Magdalene, also known as Mary of Bethany or Miryam the Migdalah, showing how Mary’s spiritual path is intimately connected to our current times of ascension. The author explores Mary’s family background, her education in Egypt, her mission in Western Europe, her life and work alongside Jesus, also known as Yeshua, and her anointing as his wife and his appointed successor. Though not recognized by the patriarchal disciples Peter, Andrew, and Paul, the author presents the evidence of Mary’s role through biblical, historical, apocryphal, and recent channeled sources and regression reports, including those of Dolores Cannon, Stuart Wilson, Joanna Prentis, and Claire Heartsong. Van der Meer then reveals Mary’s ascension process through seven branches along the Tree of Life, detailed in The Gospel of the Beloved Companion, written by Mary herself, and scientifically explains ascension—the changing of the physical body into a light body—through recent developments in quantum physics. She takes the reader through seven portals, from individual ascension to collective ascension, illuminating not only Mary’s heavenly journey of becoming light but also its spiritual significance for each of us as individuals and for the world as a whole.